One of the things I love about dairy and egg free baking is that I always seem to have the ingredients around. Oil and baking powder are definitely store cupboard staples in my house so any time I fancy whipping up a quick cake, it doesn’t take long before the dream becomes a reality!

Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen, but I’ve been making a lot of sugar free cakes recently so surely this has got to be a slight concession to healthy eating?

This ginger cake is delicately spiced with zingy flavour bursts. I used fresh ginger but think I would actually prefer ground in future. And adding a little orange drizzle was a perfect complement to the other flavours. What are your favourite plant-based cake recipes?

You will need…

For the cake

(Serves 12)

2tbs agave syrup

1 cup (American) chopped dates

3 cups (American) self-raising flour

3 tsp baking powder

1.5cm piece of fresh ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 cup rapeseed oil

1 cup dairy free milk (we used Koko)

For the drizzle

1.5 tbs agave syrup

2 tbs orange juice

How to…

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C. Grease and line a 27cm x 20cm baking tin. Place all the dry ingredients in a big mixing bowl and combine.
2. Add the wet ingredients and stir well. Fill with the mixture then bake for approximately 45 minutes until slightly brown and springy on top.
3. Mix the syrup and orange juice together then prick the surface of the cake all over with a fork and spoon the mixture on top. Slice into squares when cool.